Sarin exposure, mortality and cancer incidence in UK military veterans involved in human experiments at Porton Down: 52-year follow-up.

We investigated whether UK military personnel exposed to sarin during the 'Service Volunteer Programme' at Porton Down had increased rates of mortality or cancer incidence over a 52-year follow-up. A historical cohort study assembled from UK military records, comprising male veterans exposed to sarin during the 'Service Volunteer Programme' at Porton Down, UK (n=2975) and a comparison group of similar veterans who did not attend (n=2919). Mortality and cancer incidence data were obtained from national registries up to December 2019. Analysis was conducted using Cox regression adjusted for age, year of birth and service characteristics. Over a median follow-up of 52.2 years (range 2 days to 74.6 years), 1598 (53.7%) sarin-exposed veterans and 1583 (54.3%) non-exposed veterans died. Adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality were raised for any sarin exposure (HR=1.08, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.16), two or more exposures (HR=1.25, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.49) and higher doses (air >15 mg.min/m Sarin exposure was associated with increased rates of mortality over a 50-year follow-up. The strongest associations were observed for deaths attributable to alcohol and 'other' circulatory diseases.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Competing interests: NTF is part funded by a grant from the UK Ministry of Defence and is a trustee of a charity supporting the wellbeing of the Armed Forces community. GA, TK and KMV declare no conflict of interest.